


The Life Story Of Two Youths, And Their Dead/Absentee Biological Parents

by rose_gardens



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Armin Arlert & Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss Are Related, Awkward Crush, Awkward Kissing, Declarations Of Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Gen, I'm bad at writing romance so forgive me, Kinda, Light Angst, M/M, Past Character Death, Relationship Negotiation, Working Out My Feelings Through Fic, continuity? don't know her, in a very casual way, technically a prequel, this is all over the place but whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23427496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rose_gardens/pseuds/rose_gardens
Summary: Eren and Armin sure did a lot while Mikasa was away.Maybe more than she thought.(written for eremin week 2020 day 2: first kiss. rated teen for discussion of death)
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Kudos: 46
Collections: Ereminweek 2020





	The Life Story Of Two Youths, And Their Dead/Absentee Biological Parents

**Author's Note:**

> So this is kind of a fic of a fic, taking place before the events of Cosmic Love. You don't have to have read that fic to understand this one (but I'd like it if you did). If you are familiar with Cosmic Love you'll know that Mikasa's exchange year doesn't exactly end... well. For Mikasa or Eren. Just ignore that and pretend this ends happy.
> 
> Other things about this AU: Armin and Historia are twins who were separated at birth. Levi and Erwin are married and adopted Eren and Mikasa.

Armin had always known he was adopted. He was okay with that; it just was. His parents didn't love him any less because he wasn't theirs biologically. He'd never wondered about the mother who'd given him up or siblings he'd never met, because he hadn't needed to. He was happy and content with his idyllic, storybook life.

Until it happened. His grandfather had been elderly, and had a weak heart. One day when he'd been out fishing, he'd collapsed. The ambulance hadn't gotten there in time. 

He remembered, quite vividly, sitting in an office while a lawyer-man told him about a relative he had, all the way across the country. A twin sister. A twin, a girl he'd shared a womb with but never met. She lived with their biological father's wife - their mother had lost custody years ago and their father had passed away some time later. Armin met his new family a week later at the bus station in their town. He was nervous and awkward, feeling like he didn't belong with this large family unit - he'd been an only child for most of his life, and to now have all these half-siblings, was a little overwhelming. His new stepmother was the first to approach him, her movements indicating that she too felt uneasy. Maybe she didn't want him. Maybe it would be better if he ran away and joined a travelling circus -

The stepmother placed a hand on his shoulder, and knelt down in front of him. And she smiled kindly, and maybe Armin wouldn't be so out of place here. 

He met Historia next. She seemed excited to be meeting him, holding his hand and saying that it was like looking in a mirror and that he'd like it here with Linda and it was so cool to have a twin and wait until he met her friends at school! 

Their half-siblings were alright too. Armin shared a room with Historia and the brother closest to their age, Florian, who at first seemed a little annoyed that there was another half-sibling in his house, but eventually grew to like him. 

As Armin sat at the kitchen table that night, looking at the faces of his new-but-kind-of-not-new family while they said Grace, and thought _yeah, maybe this was different, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be good._

Kids are ruthless. They don't have tact. If a kid thinks you look ugly, they'd say it. Kids also get all their opinions and worldviews from their parents, and there was really nothing stopping them from loudly parroting whatever their parents said at home on the playground for all the other kids to hear.

" _My_ mum says that Mr Ackerman and Smith shouldn't have kids," a kid said loudly. Armin looked up from the game of snap he'd been playing with Historia (he'd been teaching her) to look. A boy was standing nearby, a girl with a scary expression holding onto his arm, almost holding him back.

"She says that they're criminals. And that because they're both boys that's why Mikasa's such a tomboy."

This caused the girl to drop her friend's arm, and he leapt forward, shouting. "Shut up! Shut up, don't talk about them, don't talk about her!"

He started laying punches on the kid, and Armin could only watch in shock. A teacher soon intervened, sending the loud-mouthed kid to get an ice pack from the office, and sending the violent boy to the principal. He seethed, and the girl followed behind him, seemingly distraught by the statement the kid had made.

"That's Eren. His mother died last year," Historia explained as the crowd dispersed. "He's nice but he's sad and angry a lot."

He certainly seemed that way.

Armin officially met Eren later that day, when he went up to the office to collect some photocopying. Eren was sitting on a bench outside the principal's office, arms crossed and kicking at the carpet. He looked up and stared at Armin when he came in. Armin did his best to ignore him, but stopped by once he'd found the sheets his teacher needed.

"You're new, right?" Eren asked. Armin nodded. "In the other class."

"Yeah. Was that your friend? The girl they were talking about?" Armin was kind of curious about the fight he'd witnessed earlier. 

"She's my sister now," Eren said glumly. 

"Oh! Were you adopted?" Armin asked. Eren gave a nod. "I was adopted too. Kind of." 

Eren gave him what looked like a smile as he left. It gave Armin hope that the two of them might be friends. 

And friends they would be. Over the days and the weeks and the months and the years that followed, the two became as close as they could. Almost closer than Armin was with Historia, though _that_ was a bond that could never be beaten. 

When they were in ninth grade, Mikasa was invited to go and stay with her bio mother's family in Japan for an exchange trip, and Eren spent a whole lot of time at Armin's house in the absence of his sister. 

"Hey, is everything alright at home?" Armin asked, sitting at the edge of his bed. They'd been playing Mariokart in Armin's room, and Eren had seemed out of it. Much less chipper than usual. 

"What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." That was a blatant lie. Eren's ears were red. They were always red when he lied. If he was bothering to lie about something like this, then it was probably something big. 

Eren's phone buzzed, over on the bed. Armin reached over to grab it, and passed it over. 

"Hey, it's a text from Mikasa," Eren said. He seemed to perk up after this, smiling as he read his sister's text. "Ha, she's making friends. This girl in her class asked her out."

"Like on a date?" Armin inquired, leaning over to see. He had always kind of suspected that Mikasa was gay, or aromantic at least, given her general disinterest in guys. 

"No, like as friends," Eren said. "At least I think so. Yeah, they're friends." He started typing out a reply. "She's straight-as though, she usually doesn't even like hanging out with other girls."

"Huh." Armin rested his head on Eren's shoulder as he typed. His head fit perfectly there, almost like it was designed to. He felt sort of embarrassed, but in a good way. "We're friends, right?" Armin asked.

"Yeah," Eren answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

"And friends tell each other what's up?"

Eren put his phone down, getting up from his restful position and turning to face Armin. "Armin, I-"

"You're clearly not alright," Armin said. "You've been like this for days now, just really down, like something's wrong."

Eren frowned, and stood up. "I have to go," he said. 

"Eren, wait," Armin called, following him through the rest of the house. "Don't leave-"

But Eren didn't stop. He ignored Armin and walked out of the house. He didn't even ask for a lift home.

"Wow, he seems pissed," one of Armin's half-brothers, Dirk, said around a mouth of cereal. 

Armin saw Eren the next day, when they were at school. He still looked tired and unwell, maybe even worse than before. But they spoke again, and Eren wasn't avoiding Armin this time. 

"I'll tell you later. There's something I want to show you."

They took a bus trip out of town that afternoon. Armin cleared it with Linda, who said it was okay so long as he came back in time for tea - they were having casserole that night. Eren was silent the whole ride, only speaking when the bus came to their stop.

"This is it," he said. He led Armin off the bus, out onto the side of the road. Woods surrounded the road on both sides, only a few road signs and the bus shelter. "Hope you brought good walking shoes."

Armin was confused, but he didn't bring it up. As Eren led him down a side road and later a gravel driveway. Eventually they came out into a clearing. At the end of the driveway was the ruins of a long-destroyed house. 

Eren stopped in place. He stared at the wreckage, and Armin noticed the glimmer of tears in his eyes. 

"This is where my mom died."

Armin stood in shock as Eren told him the story. A housefire caused by a lightning strike, at least, that's what the firefighters said afterwards. Eren was the only survivor. Nobody found his dad's body.

"They think he died," he said. "But I don't know about that."

Armin took Eren's hand in his, in an act of comfort. "Why did you take me here?" He asked.

"We're friends, yeah? And I don't want to hide things from you." Eren paused, and closed his eyes. "It was seven years ago yesterday," he mumbled. 

Armin gripped Eren's hand tighter. "I'm so sorry."

He could see the tears running down Eren's face. He could hear the soft sobs he was making, and, acting on instinct, pulled Eren into a hug. He'd gone through a growth spurt recently, so Armin only came up to his shoulder. His embrace was tight, warm... right. This closeness felt good. Armin's heart rate spiked.

It was Eren who stepped back first. He wiped away his tears with the sleeve of his shirt, and forced himself to have a straight expression. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Don't apologise," Armin said. His heart was beating fast from the recent closeness. It was that same embarrassed-yet-good feeling he'd felt yesterday. Why was he feeling this way about his best friend? It wasn't like he had a crush or anything.

Armin took a note of Eren's features; his brown hair, so dark it looked black, that Armin knew was soft; curve of his nose; his brown eyes that looked golden in the setting sun, which also made his olive skin glow-

Oh. Maybe Armin _did_ like guys.

He stepped closer to Eren, who still looked like he wanted to bury everything. Armin looked at the shape of Eren's lips, and felt kind of guilty for feeling this way about his friend while he was grieving. He looked down at the ground instead. 

Eren sighed again, and slipped his hand back into Armin's. 

"Eren, do you... are you..." Armin tried to think of a way to put his feelings into words. He shook his head, and soldiered on. "Is it okay if I kiss you?" He asked, softly. He looked up to see Eren's mildly confused face, and his heart fell. Shit. He'd fucked up his first crush.

"That's okay," Eren said. He looked like he'd been put on the spot, but nodded, and smiled awkwardly. He leaned down, and Armin stood on his tiptoes, and kissed. It was nothing passionate, just a touch of the lips. Very soft. 

Eren moved away first, and he was smiling. Armin was smiling too, the embarrassed/good feeling still there.

"That was the first time you've kissed someone, right?" Eren asked. Armin nodded. "Yeah. Me too."

"I haven't had much experience, but that was, uh, it was good."

Eren nodded as well. "Yeah, good. It was good."

The two friends stood together for a moment longer, neither knowing what to do next. What happens now? In the romance movies Historia loved watching, it always ended when the love interests kissed. Armin knew that those movies were bullshit and terrible examples of romance, but they were his only source of info about this sort of thing. In the end, they both decided to head back out to the bus shelter on the road. 

They sat together on the bus, Armin resting his head on Eren's shoulder, and Eren resting his head on Armin's. 

"So, I think I like you," Armin said quietly, while a soft song played on the radio. 

"I don't know," was Eren's barely audible answer. Armin blinked, worried for a moment. "I want to like you. I've fantasised - about being with you, as your boyfriend, but - I don't know."

"If you're worried about what people think, we don't have to tell anyone," Armin suggested.

"It's not that. I want to fall in love with you, but I don't know if I can."

"If you want," Armin said, "I can wait for you. I'll be here, if you ever do fall in love."

"I'd like that," Eren said, and sat with Armin for the rest of the bus trip home.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've participated in a ship week, and I really enjoyed doing it! I'll probably do it again some time :)


End file.
